Triassic warm subduction in northeast Turkey: Evidence from the Ağvanis metamorphic rocks

Within the Tethyan realm, data for the subduction history of the Permo–Triassic Tethys in the form of accretionary complexes are scarce, coming mainly from northwest Turkey and Tibet. Herein we present field geological, petrological and geochronological data on a Triassic accretionary complex, the A?vanis metamorphic rocks, from northeast Turkey. The A?vanis metamorphic rocks form a SSE–NNW trending lozenge‐shaped horst, ～20 km long and ～6 km across, bounded by the strands of the active North Anatolian Fault close to the collision zone between the Eastern Pontides and the Menderes–Taurus Block. The rocks consist mainly of greenschist‐ to epidote‐amphibolite‐facies metabasite, phyllite, marble and minor metachert and serpentinite, interpreted as a metamorphic accretionary complex based on the oceanic rock types and ocean island basaltic, mid‐ocean ridge basaltic and island‐arc tholeiitic affinities of the metabasites. This rock assemblage was intruded by stocks and dikes of Early Eocene quartz diorite, leucogranodiorite and dacite porphyry. Metamorphic conditions are estimated to be 470–540°C and ～0.60–0.90 GPa. Stepwise ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of phengite–muscovite separates sampled outside the contact metamorphic aureoles yielded steadily increasing age spectra with the highest incremental stage corresponding to age values ranging from ～180 to 209 Ma, suggesting that the metamorphism occurred at ≥ 209 Ma. Thus, the A?vanis metamorphic rocks represent the vestiges of the Late Triassic or slightly older subduction in northeast Turkey. Estimated P–T conditions indicate higher temperatures than those predicted by steady state thermal models for average subduction zones, and can best be accounted for by a hot subduction zone, similar to the present‐day Cascadia. Contact metamorphic mineral assemblages around an Early Eocene quartz diorite stock, on the other hand, suggest that the present‐day erosion level was at depths of ～14 km during the Early Eocene, indicative of reburial of the metamorphic rocks. Partial disturbance of white‐mica Ar–Ar age spectra was probably caused by the reburial coupled with heat input by igneous activity, which is probably related to thrusting due to the continental collision between Eastern Pontides and the Menderes–Taurus Block.     

Application of a normalization procedure in determining regional geochemical baselines

 The regional variability of some geochemical parameters in the Gulf of Trieste is considered in terms of their relationship with Al, used as a normalization factor. Baselines calculated from these relationships are used to determine a simple enrichment factor for each element, defined as the ratio between the actual and predicted baseline value. The normalization procedure permits a new non dimensional reference baseline to be obtained that could help to assess the size of possible anomalies and to provide information on the diffusion and dispersion patterns of pollutants inside the monitored area. Received: 24 August 1995 · Accepted: 15 October 1995     

Effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis, with emphasis on carbonate aquifers

 This article provides a critical synopsis of the effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis. Emphasis is placed on those aspects and processes that change porosity and permeability in carbonate aquifers, because they are of particular importance to human societies as sources of supplies of water for human consumption (drinking, irrigation) and of crude oil and natural gas. Diagenetic settings in carbonates as well as clastics are generally ill defined. This paper proposes a new comprehensive classification of diagenetic settings into near-surface, shallow-, intermediate-, and deep-burial diagenetic settings; hydrocarbon-contaminated plumes; and fractures. These settings are defined on the basis of mineralogy, petroleum, hydrogeochemistry, and hydrogeology. This classification is applicable to all sedimentary basins. Diagenesis is governed by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors that include thermodynamic and kinetic constraints, as well as microstructural factors that may override the others. These factors govern diagenetic processes, such as dissolution, compaction, recrystallization, replacement, and sulfate–hydrocarbon redox-reactions. Processes such as cementation, dissolution, and dolomitization require significant flow of groundwater driven by an externally imposed hydraulic gradient. Other processes, such as stylolitization and thermochemical sulfate reduction, commonly take place without significant groundwater flow in hydrologically nearly or completely stagnant systems that are geochemically "closed." Two major effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis are enhancement and reduction of porosity and permeability, although groundwater flow can also leave these rock properties essentially unchanged. In extreme cases, an aquifer or hydrocarbon reservoir rock can have highly enhanced porosity and permeability due to extensive mineral dissolution, or it can be plugged up due to extensive mineral precipitation. Received, April 1998 · Revised, July 1998 · Accepted, September 1998     

Low-grade metamorphic rocks from the Pulur complex,NE Turkey: implications for the pre-Liassic evolution of the Eastern Pontides

In the Pulur complex (Sakarya Zone, Eastern Pontides, Turkey) a low-grade tectonometamorphic unit (Doankavak) is exposed in three tectonic windows beneath a complex medium-pressure high-temperature metamorphic unit of late Carboniferous age. The thrust plane between both units is transgressively covered by Liassic conglomerates. The Doankavak unit comprises a sequence of metabasites with MORB-type chemical compositions and phyllites, with subordinate calcareous phyllites, marbles, quarzofeldspathic schists and metacherts. This sequence is interpreted as a former accretionary complex related to the consumption of the Palaeotethys. Mineral parageneses in the metabasites allow for the distinction of two domains with slightly different peak metamorphic conditions, i.e. 375–425 °C/0.5–0.8 GPa (greenschist facies) and 400–470 °C/0.6–1.1 GPa (albite-epidote amphibolite facies). The age of metamorphism is constrained at ~ 260 Ma (early Late Permian) by two Rb-Sr mineral-whole rock ages (hornblende, phengite) and one ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar single step total fusion age (phengite). In conjunction with previous data on other accretionary complexes in the Sakarya zone in Northern Turkey, the data presented in this study suggest a continuous subduction of the Palaeotethys at least from Early/Late Permian to Late Triassic and a discontinuous preservation of accretion complexes in both space and time.     

Quaternary sediments in the axial zone of the Brazil Basin

Lithological and micropaleontological studies of sediments were carried out along the meridional profile across the Brazil Basin. Based on nannoplankton and diatom assemblages, the sediments represented by oxidized miopelagic clays, differently reduced hemipelagic clays, and clayey-siliceous (Ethmodiscus) and calcareous (coccolith-foraminiferal) oozes are attributed to the Pleistocene-Holocene. Specific features of sedimentary material indicate its redeposition by Antarctic bottom waters, mudflows, slumps, and rockslides. It is shown that sedimentation in the Brazil Basin corresponds to the incomplete pelagic (miopelagic) type of oceanic lithogenesis transitional to the near-continental one.     

Gamma ray astronomy beyond 2001: What instruments for the newt challenges?

In spite of the recent successes of SIGMA, RXTE andCompton GRO, and the launch of INTEGRAL in 2001, a lot ofquestions will stay opened for the next decades in gamma-ray astronomy.In this context we have to think about future instrument concepts whichwill allow a new step in the understanding of high-energy phenomena atwork in many exciting objects: binary systems with compact objects,active galactic nuclei, supernovae and novae, gamma ray bursters...A short overview of these new types of instruments will be given.     

Neutron monitor observations of high-energy solar particles during the new cycle

After a lapse of five years, the first solar events in which particles were emitted with sufficiently high energies to produce intensity enhancements in ground-based neutron monitors occurred on July 7, 1966, and January 28, 1967. Although the magnitude of the first of these increases was too small (<2%) to permit detailed analysis, the later event, which exceeded 18% at sea-level stations in the polar regions, displayed unusual characteristics. The January 28 event is anomalous in that either it represents the first observation of solar particles reaching the earth from the back side of the sun, or it is associated with a feeble flare (1-) in the unfavored eastern hemisphere of the visible disk. The propagation of solar particles in this event was evidently controlled by a diffusion mechanism, and the observations are consistent with predictions based on alternative theoretical models of this process.This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Office of Aerospace Research.     

Seismic microzonation for Muscat region,Sultanate of Oman

Natural Hazards - Site characterization was carried out for Muscat region using the ambient noise measurements applying the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique and using active...     

On the climate response of the low-latitude Pacific Ocean to changes in the global freshwater cycle

Under global warming, the predicted intensification of the global freshwater cycle will modify the net freshwater flux at the ocean surface. Since the freshwater flux maintains ocean salinity structures, changes to the density-driven ocean circulation are likely. A modified ocean circulation could further alter the climate, potentially allowing rapid changes, as seen in the past. The relevant feedback mechanisms and timescales are poorly understood in detail, however, especially at low latitudes where the effects of salinity are relatively subtle. In an attempt to resolve some of these outstanding issues, we present an investigation of the climate response of the low-latitude Pacific region to changes in freshwater forcing. Initiated from the present-day thermohaline structure, a control run of a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model is compared with a perturbation run in which the net freshwater flux is prescribed to be zero over the ocean. Such an extreme experiment helps to elucidate the general adjustment mechanisms and their timescales. The atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are held constant, and we restrict our attention to the adjustment of the upper 1,000 m of the Pacific Ocean between 40°N and 40°S, over 100 years. In the perturbation run, changes to the surface buoyancy, near-surface vertical mixing and mixed-layer depth are established within 1 year. Subsequently, relative to the control run, the surface of the low-latitude Pacific Ocean in the perturbation run warms by an average of 0.6°C, and the interior cools by up to 1.1°C, after a few decades. This vertical re-arrangement of the ocean heat content is shown to be achieved by a gradual shutdown of the heat flux due to isopycnal (i.e. along surfaces of constant density) mixing, the vertical component of which is downwards at low latitudes. This heat transfer depends crucially upon the existence of density-compensating temperature and salinity gradients on isopycnal surfaces. The timescale of the thermal changes in the perturbation run is therefore set by the timescale for the decay of isopycnal salinity gradients in response to the eliminated freshwater forcing, which we demonstrate to be around 10–20 years. Such isopycnal heat flux changes may play a role in the response of the low-latitude climate to a future accelerated freshwater cycle. Specifically, the mechanism appears to represent a weak negative sea surface temperature feedback, which we speculate might partially shield from view the anthropogenically-forced global warming signal at low latitudes. Furthermore, since the surface freshwater flux is shown to play a role in determining the ocean’s thermal structure, it follows that evaporation and/or precipitation biases in general circulation models are likely to cause sea surface temperature biases.     

Using idealized snow forcing to test teleconnections with the Indian summer monsoon in the Hadley Centre GCM

Anomalous heavy snow during winter or spring has long been regarded as a possible precursor of deficient Indian monsoon rainfall during the subsequent summer. However previous work in this field is inconclusive, in terms of the mechanism that communicates snow anomalies to the monsoon summer, and even the region from which snow has the most impact. In this study we explore these issues in coupled and atmosphere-only versions of the Hadley Centre model. A 1050-year control integration of the HadCM3 coupled model, which well represents the seasonal cycle of snow cover over the Eurasian continent, is analysed and shows evidence for weakened monsoons being preceded by strong snow forcing (in the absence of ENSO) over either the Himalaya/Tibetan Plateau or north/west Eurasia regions. However, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of springtime interannual variability in snow depth shows the leading mode to have opposite signs between these two regions, suggesting that competing mechanisms may be possible. To determine the dominant region, ensemble integrations are carried out using HadAM3, the atmospheric component of HadCM3, and a variety of anomalous snow forcing initial conditions obtained from the control integration of the coupled model. Forcings are applied during spring in separate experiments over the Himalaya/Tibetan Plateau and north/west Eurasia regions, in conjunction with climatological SSTs in order to avoid the direct effects of ENSO. With the aid of idealized forcing conditions in sensitivity tests, we demonstrate that forcing from the Himalaya region is dominant in this model via a Blanford-type mechanism involving reduced surface sensible heat and longwave fluxes, reduced heating of the troposphere over the Tibetan Plateau and consequently a reduced meridional tropospheric temperature gradient which weakens the monsoon during early summer. Snow albedo is shown to be key to the mechanism, explaining around 50% of the perturbation in sensible heating over the Tibetan Plateau, and accounting for the majority of cooling through the troposphere.